Lighted toy railroad coach



April 11, 1939. Fl KELCH ET AL 2,153,983

LIGHTED TOY RAILROAD COACH Filed MaIGh 17, 1937 v l 32 FEL- 1.15. 35INVENTGR LESTER F. KELCH VILBUR IM KELCH ATTO R N EYS lighting unit isdetachably inserted in the coach Patented Apr. 1l, 1939 UNITED STATESPATENT GFFIQE LIGHTED TOY RAILROAD COACH Application March 17, 1937,Serial No. 131,386

7 Claims.

This invention relates to toys and more particularly to a lighted coachfor use with toy railroads.

The primary object of our invention is to generally improve lightedcoaches for toy railroads. Heretofore, toy lighted coaches have beencostly and have been used on only the more expensive types of toyrailroad. A further object of our invention is to produce a toy lightedcoach which is economical to manufacture and which may be sold at a lowprice for use with inexpensive toy railroads.

One problem which arises in connection with a lighted toy coach, is thereplacement of lamps when burned out or broken. In the usualconstruction it is necessary to remove the entire roof of the car inorder to obtain access to the lamp. This in turn complicates themanufacture of the coach body, for it must be strongly reinforced inorder to hold its shape independently of the roof. In accordance withfurther objects and features of our invention, the coach body is madewith top, bottom, and side walls which are permanently connectedtogether. The bottom wall is provided with an opening, and a specialbody. This lighting unit includes the lamp, lamp socket, and third railcontact shoe, and is preferably so constructed as to dispense with thenecessity for electric wiring. To replace a burnedout lamp, it is merelynecessary to temporarily remove the detachable lighting unit from thecoach body.

The usual lighted coach even when of the more expensive type, is notprovided with a switch for the lighting circuit, and the lampconsequently burns whenever the coach is used. Another object of ourinvention is to provide the coach with a switch for controlling thelighting of the lamp, the said switch being so constructed as to notonly dispense with the necessity for wiring between the lamp and theswitch, but also to actually replace some wiring which might otherwisebe necessary.

Another object and another advantage of the invention centers about thefact that the manufacturer may use the same dies for making coach bodieswith or without the lighting equipment. Inasmuch as the lighting isprovided by a unit detachably inserted through the bottom of the coach,a coach devoid of lighting may be made by simply omitting the detachablelighting unit.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and such other objects as willhereinafter appear, our invention consists in the toy lighted coachelements and their relation one to the other as hereinafter aremoreparticularly described in the specication and sought to be defined inthe claims. Thespecication is accompanied by a drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a toy coach embodying features of ourinvention;

Fig. 2 is an inverted plan view showing a part of the bottom. of thecoach;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken in the plane of the line 3-3 ofFig. l;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section taken in the plane of the line 4-4 of Fig.3;

Fig. 5 is a detail of the lock for holding the lighting unit in place,and isl taken in section at the line 5 5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 shows the detachable lighting unit in perspective; and

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section similar to Fig. 4 but showing amodification.

Referring to the drawing, the toy comprises a coach body C, and adetachable lighting unit generally designated L. The nature oi thelighting unit is best seen from inspection of Fig. 6. It is manifestthat the lighting unit may be inserted through a comparatively smallopening in the bottom of the coach, and that no substantial modiicationof the coach structure itself is required.

The lighting unit L comprises an insulation plate I2. The lamp I4 ismounted above the plate I2, and a` third rail contact shoe I6 is mountedbelow plate I2. Specifically, an inverted U-shaped metallic support I8is secured to insulation plate I2 by tongues 20 which pass through slotsin the insulation plate and are bent over therebeneath. The lamp socketcom-prises a threaded shell 22 the base of which is insulatedly mountedon support I8 by means of an eyelet 24. The socket 22 is provided withinsulation washers 26 and 28 (Fig. 4) which surround eyelet 2li. Thehole in the base of the socket 22 is, of course, larger than eyelet 26,and with this construction the eyelet is insulated from the shell of thesocket and its upper end may be used as a center terminal for contactwith the center terminal 30 of lamp III.

The third rail contact shoe assembly comprises an upper or stationarymember 32 and a lower or movable member I6. The upper member 32 issecured to insulation plate I2 by the bent tongues 2!! previouslyreferred to. The support I8 thus serves not only to structurally mountthe lamp socket at the desired elevation, but also forms an The movablemember I 6 is connected. tothe stationary member 32 by means of guidepins 34 the lower ends of which are shouldered and riveted to the shoeI5 at 35, and the upper ends of which are slidable through the arms 38of stationary member 32. Light readily yieldable springs 40 are disposedaround the pins 34 and function to normally urge the shoe I6 downwardlyinto good electrical Contact with the third rail of the track. Therelation of the parts when the coach is removed from the track isillustrated by Fig. 4, while the relation of the parts when the coach isrested on the track is shown in Fig. 1.

The lighting of the coach is controlled by a switch S. This switch isformed of a single piece previously referred to.

of sheet metal the outer end 42 of which is shaped to form a controllever which projects slightly from the side of the coach body. The innerend is bent upwardly and sidewardly to form a yieldable contact 44. Theswitch lever is pivotally mounted on the bottom 46 of the coach body bymeans of an eyelet 48. Contact 44 is so located that it may be movedinto or out of engagement with the exterior of either the lamp socket 22or the base I] of the lamp bulb, as is shown in Fig. 4. This completesthe lighting circuit, for it grounds the base of the lamp to the coachbody which in turn is connected to the outside rails of the track bymeans of the coach Wheels 52. By moving the switch handle 44 in theopposite direction, the

contact 44 may be moved away from the lamp socket, thus opening thelighting circuit.

The coach body C comprises a top wall 54, side walls 56, end Walls 58,and the bottom wall 46 These walls may be and preferably are permanentlysecured together. In the specic construction here illustrated, the topwall 54, the side walls 56, and the end walls 58 are all made of asingle piece of sheet metal, the said metal being formed by appropriatedies into the enclosed shape shown in the drawing. The bottom of thecoach is closed by a special bottom plate 46 the periphery of which ispreferably downwardly flanged, as indicated at 6U, in order to stiffenand rigidify the same. The side walls 56 and the bottom 46 are securedtogether by conventional bent tongue and slot connections 62.

The bottom 46 is provided with a suitable opening 64 for receiving thelighting unit L. This opening is larger than the inverted U-shapedsupport I8 in order to avoid grounding the support against the car body.The lighting unit is held in place by means best shown in Figs. 4, 5,and 6. The ends of insulation plate I2 are preferably notched orrecessed, as shown at 66 in Fig. 6. At

one end of insulation plate I2 the bottom 46 has struck downwardlytherefrom a support lug 68 which fits through recess 66. At the otherend of plate I 2 the bottom has struck downwardly therefrom a locatinglug 'IU which is much like support lug 68 but is bent downwardly atright angles to the body. Lug 1I), of course, fits into the notch orrecess 6. The coach bottom 46 is additionally provided with a pivotedlatch "I2, said latch being eyeletted to the bottom at 14, as is bestshown in Figs. 2 and 5. The inner end of latch 'I2 is stepped downwardlyat 'I6 to t snugly against the bottom of insulation plate I2. The outerend may be turned downwardly at 'I8 to form a stop which bears againstthe flange 6U of bottom 46 when the latch is in closed or lockingposition. The downturned end I8 also acts as a handle to facilitateswinging the latch from the solid-line position shown in Fig. 2 to thebroken-line position. This, of course. releases that end of insulationplate I2 which is adjacent the vertical lug lIIJ. The insulation plateis therefore readily tipped downwardly from lug 'i0 and may thereupon beslid longitudinally, free of the holding lug 68. The entire lightingunit is readily withdrawn from the coach, and the lamp I4 is therebymade accessible for replacement.

'I'he side walls 56 of the coach body are cut away to form a series ofsimulated Windows 8D behind which are secured transparent sheets 82 madeof isinglass, Celluloid, or the like. These sheets are held in place bybent tongue connections 84 which are used to hold external handrails 86on the outside of the coach body.

The coach is completed by the wheels 52 previously referred to, which inthe present case are mounted on trucks 86 which in turn are pivotallymounted on the car bottom in conventional fashion. The coupling bars 88are preferably pivoted on the same center-line as the trucks, and asingle eyelet or other pivot may be used for both purposes. It will beunderstood that in an even less expensive model, four rather than eightwheels may be used, one pair of wheels being disposed near each end ofthe coach, and the axles thereof being journaled directly in bracketsdepending from the coach bottom. In other words, the pivoted trucks aswell as other details of the coach construction are not essential to thepractice of the present invention.

A slightly modified construction of even greater simplicity is shown inFig. 7, referring to which it will be seen that the insulation plate I2is supported on the coach bottom 46' by means of two support lugs 68each like the support lug 68 previously referred to. In other words, inthis construction the locating lug I6 is bent slightly beneath theinsulation plate in order to hold the same in place, thereby completelydispensing with the manually operable latch l2. To replace the lampbulb, it is simply necessary to bend one of the lugs 68 downwardlyslightly, thus freeing one end of plate I 2 which may then be tilted andremoved from the coach, just as previously described. The lugs 68 willwithstand a number of such bendings because the metal is not sharplybent. Inasmuch as the necessity for changing a lamp bulb arises onlyinfrequently, the construction of Fig. '7, while not as convenient asthe construction of Fig. 2, is nevertheless a perfectly usable andpractical construction.

With either construction, the coach is complete and operable even if thelighting unit is removed and left out of the coach. In fact, the presentconstruction is of advantage from the viewpoint of the manufacturer, inthat a single set of dies for the coach body may be used in themanufacture of either lighted or unlighted coaches. The same bottom maybe used, and the presence of several holes therein is of no consequencebecause they are located out of sight on the bottom of the coach.However, if the manufacturer wishes to avoid the presence of theseunnecessary openings in the unlighted coaches, it is simply necessary touse a separate die for the supplementary operation of striking the holesand lugs in the bottom, and only those bottoms intended for use in alighted coach need be subjected to this supplementary operation.

It is believed that the construction and operation of our improvedlighted toy coach, as well as the many advantages thereof will beapparent from the foregoing detailed description. It will also beapparent that while We have shown and described our invention inpreferred forms, many changes and modications may be made in thestructures disclosed, without departing from the spirit of the inventiondened in the following claims.

We claim:

1. A toy lighting unit for a toy railroad car, said lighting unitincluding an insulated support plate, a lampi socket and lamp mounted onthe upper side thereof, a third rail contact shoe mounted on the lowerside of said support plate and supported solely by said support plate,the unit being adapted to be inserted in a hole cut in the bottom of atoy railroad car and tol be secured to said toy railroad car bottom.

2'. The combination with the bottom of a toy railroad car, of a toylighting unit including an insulated support plate, a lamp socket andlamp mounted on the upper side thereof, a third rail contact shoemounted on the lower side of said support plate and supported solely bysaid support plate, said car bottom having an oversize hole cuttherethrough adapted to receive the lamp and lamp socket, mating meanson said car bottom and on said support plate for detachably securing thesupport plate to the car bottom, means electrically connecting saidcontact shoe to the center terminal of the lamp socket, and means forgrounding the side of said lamp socket to the car bottom.

3. The combination with the bottom of a toy railroad car, of a toylighting unit including an insulated support plate, a lamp socket andlamp mounted on the upper side thereof, a third rail Contact shoemounted on the lower side of said support plate and supported solely bysaid support plate, said car bottom having an oversize hole cuttherethrough adapted to receive the lamp and lamp socket, mating meanson said car bottom and on said support plate for detachably securing thesupport plate to the car bottom, means electrically connecting saidcontact shoe to the center terminal of the lamp socket, and means forgrounding the side of said lamp socket to the car bottom, said meansbeing movably mounted to bring the same into or out of contact with thesocket and to thereby function as a switch controlling the energizationof the lamp.

4. A toy lighting unit for a toy railway car, said lighting unitincluding an insulation support plate, an inverted U-shaped metallicsupport above said plate secured thereto by bent tongue and slotconnections, a lamp socket mounted on said support with one terminalriveted to and electrically connected With the support, a third railcontact shoe mounted on the lower side of said support plate andcomprising stationary and movable parts, the stationary part beingsecured to the plate and electrically connected to the support by theaforesaid bent tongue connections, and the movable part being disposedbeneath the stationary part and connected thereto by light springconnections which aiord ready yieldability.

5. The combination with a toy railroad car bottom, of a toy lightingunit including an insulation support plate, an inverted U-shapedmetallic support above said plate secured thereto by bent tongue andslot connections, a lamp socket mounted on said support with oneterminal riveted to and electrically connected with the support, a thirdrail contact shoe mounted on the lower side of said support plate andAcomprising stationary and movable parts, the stationary part beingsecured to the plate and electrically connected to the support by theaforesaid bent tongue connections, the movable part being disposedbeneath the stationary part and connected thereto by light springconnections which aiord ready yieldability, means to detachably securethe insulation plate to the car bottom, and means to complete the lampcircuit by grounding the other lamp socket terminal to the car bottom.

6. The combination with a toy railroad car bottom, of a toy lightingunit including an insulation support plate, a lamp socket mounted onsaid support plate, a third rail contact shoe mounted on the lower sideof said support plate and connected to the center terminal of the lampsocket, mea-ns to detachably secure the insulation plate to the carbottom, and means to complete the lamp circuit by grounding the lampsocket to the car bottom, said means including a sheet metal memberpivotally mount-ed on and electrically connected to the car bottom, onepart of said member projecting beyond the bottom and being shaped toform a handle, and the other part of said member being bent to form acontact so located that movement of the handle moves the contactintoengagement with the exterior of the lamp socket.

7. The combination with a toy railroad car bottom, of a toy lightingunit including an insulation support plate, an inverted U-shapedmetallic support above said plate secured thereto by bent tongue andslot connections, a lamp socket mounted on said support with oneterminal riveted toand electrically connected with the support, a thirdrail contact shoe mounted on the lower side of said support plate andcomprising stationary and movable parts, the stationary part beingsecured to the plate and electrically connected to the support by theaforesaid bent tongue connections, the movable part being disposedbeneath the stationary part and connected thereto by light springconnections which afford ready yieldability, means to detachably securethe insulation plate to the car bottom, and means to complete the lampcircuit by grounding the other lamp socket terminal to the car bottom,said means including a sheet metal member pivotally mounted on andelectrically connected to the car bottom, one part of said memberprojecting beyond the bottom and being shaped to form a handle, and theother part of said member being bent to form a contact so located thatmovement of the handle moves the contact into engagement with theexterior of the lamp socket.

LESTER F. KELCH. WILBUR W. KELCH.

